July 26 (Reuters) - New York Times Co reportedbetter than expected growth in revenue on Thursday as morereaders paid for its news, showing its plan to charge for itsdigital products helped offset declining ad sales.

The company, which publishes its namesake newspaper and theBoston Globe, said second-quarter revenue rose almost 1 percentto $515.2 million as circulation revenue climbed 8 percent. Thatbeat analysts' average estimate of revenue of $510.9 million,according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Still, some troubling signs remain at the New York Times,which has been without a chief executive for 7 months.

The company took a $194.7 million non-cash goodwill chargefor the About Group, which swung the Times to a net loss of$88.1 million. The New York Times bought the About Group in 2005for about $410 million.

Excluding severance costs and the About Group writedown, thecompany reported earnings per share of 14 cents, beatinganalysts' estimates by a penny, according to I/B/E/S.

"(About.com)is dragging everything down, which is concerningfor how small About Group is," MacKay said.

About.com is a website that provides expert answers that aregeared to appear high in search queries. In turn, the companysells advertising against those results.

That division has run into trouble mainly because of changesmade by Google Inc to its search algorithm to returnhigh-quality results.

At the About Group, revenue fell almost 8 percent due todecreases in both cost-per-click and display advertising. Thecompany cited competition and the weak economy for the displayadvertising revenue declines. The company said total ad revenuetrends in the third quarter are expected to improve from thesecond quarter because of digital ad sales.